Shibaozhai Temple

Cultural Spots

Natural Landscape

Shibaozhai Temple is about 240 km away from the Chongqing urban area. Built in the Ming Dynasty, Shibaozhai consists of a gate, a pavilion and a temple. It is the tallest specimen of ancient architecture in China and regarded as one of the eight fantastic examples of architecture in the world. A spiral staircase in the pavilion takes tourists to the temple at the top.

Inside the pavilion, steles and inscriptions from past dynasties adorn each floorand windows on each floor provide visitors a spectacular view of the Yangtze River. Originally, there was no pavilion, the temple at the top could only be reached by path hewn in the rock with an iron chain to hold on to. A clever artificer once saw an eagle spread its wings and fly, little by little, up to the temple. This gave him the idea to build a scaling ladder within a building and the pavilion was erected.

Upon reaching the top of the pavilion, visitors see a flat stone dam. Here stands the ancient 'Lanruo Temple,' at the highest point of the Precious Stone Fortress. A mural depicting the story of Nu Wa patching up the sky is in the main hall of the temple and the so-called “Rice Flowing Hole” can be seen at the rear hall. According to legend, rice once flowed from the hole every day after the temple was built. A greedy monk wanting more rice to flow from the hole made it larger and, after that, no more rice appeared!